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RSC WANTS TRUMP’S ‘PARTY OF HEALTHCARE’ TITLE: The conservative Republican Study Committee has released a healthcare plan, charging into a fraught political battle over how to overhaul America’s health insurance system.
The details of the plan, outlined Tuesday in a 60-page document titled “A Framework for Personalized, Affordable Care,” are similar to what Republicans tried before. The plan lets states set up high risk pools, repackages the funding for subsidies and Medicaid expansion so states can decide how to make coverage less expensive to lower-income people, and expands health savings accounts so people can have the same plan going from one job to the next.
Coming out with a plan is a surprising political strategy. Democrats took the House in 2018 not by campaigning on improving the healthcare system, but by attacking Republicans over their efforts to repeal Obamacare’s specific scaffolding for pre-existing conditions. Rather than release a plan at all, Republicans could lean on attacking Democrats over their plans to abolish private health insurance through “Medicare for all.”
“They know it’s a field full of political landmines,” RSC Chairman Rep. Mike Johnson said of the 147-member group releasing a proposal. “But we’re willing to take those risks because we believe it’s the right thing to do. We think we have a responsibility to put ideas on the table and begin this debate.”
The plan can’t move ahead with a Democrat-controlled House. So the ideas are there to develop a framework ahead of 2020, and Johnson expects some debate even among Republicans. He and Roger Marshall, who chairs the RSC healthcare task force, see their plan not only as a potential replacement if the courts were to invalidate Obamacare, but want to use it as a foil against “Medicare for all.” They think it can help them win the House majority.
“This will be the defining issue of the 2020 election,” Marshall said. “Do you want a president who wants to have the government take over your healthcare, or do you want personal choices?”
They’ll be more vocal about attacking Obamacare, too. The RSC document delves into the difficulties middle-class people face in affording Obamacare plans, making the pre-existing protections moot to those people because many of them choose to go uninsured. This type of argument, of raising the “victims” of Obamacare, was common before the repeal and replace efforts but disappeared during the 2018 midterms as Republicans played defense.
Republicans are planning to put out a second piece of the plan and have been working on their ideas all year. Johnson described the plan as a “complement” to White House efforts. Marshall said when he met with President Trump a few months ago, the president said: “Wait a second, Roger — whatever you do, take care of pre-existing conditions.”
Marshall said this was his biggest concern, too. “I woke up and went to sleep for the past four years trying to figure out how to fix pre-existing conditions,” he said.
But Democrats are sure to attack Republicans over the protections. While Republicans insist they are protecting pre-existing conditions by extending rules that don’t allow insurers to turn away the sick, they also let states decide how extensive coverage must be and expand health sharing ministries, which aren’t guaranteed to cover medical needs. The plan would further expand association health plans, where people band together to get coverage to have the same leverage as big companies, but they have a history of insolvency.
Good morning and welcome to the Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare! This newsletter is written by senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and healthcare reporter Cassidy Morrison (@CassMorrison94). You can reach us with tips, calendar items, or suggestions at [email protected]. If someone forwarded you this email and you’d like to receive it regularly, you can subscribe here.
OBAMACARE PREMIUMS DROP AGAIN: Rates for silver plans sold on healthcare.gov will fall by an average of 4% next year, bucking predictions that premiums were set to soar under the GOP tax law and after the Trump administration offered options outside Obamacare. The Trump administration helped to secure lower rates by approving reinsurance plans in 12 states, which also helped encourage more insurers to enter the market for 2020.
Expect Verma to tout the outcomes Wednesday. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing titled “Sabotage: The Trump Administration’s Attack on Healthcare,” in which they’ve asked Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma to testify. In a phone call with reporters Monday, Verma credited the Trump administration for the improved marketplace.
Health officials openly pushed back against critics during the call. “The president who was supposedly trying to sabotage the law has been better at running it than the guy who wrote the law,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
Will the 5th Circuit take notice? The lawsuit to invalidate Obamacare rests on the premise that the law cannot survive with the zeroing out of the individual mandate. So far, however, the law seems to be holding up OK without it.
HOUSE COMMITTEE WILL CONSIDER TAX ON NICOTINE VAPING PRODUCTS: The House Ways and Means Committee will mark up a bipartisan bill Wednesday to place a tax on nicotine vaping products. The committee markup is the latest in a series of hearings on legislation to remedy the teen vaping epidemic, especially since 1,479 people have been diagnosed with lung injuries linked to vaping and 33 people have died.
The Joint Committee on Taxation, a committee that assists members of Congress on all tax-related legislation, estimated that the tax on vaping would bring in $10 billion over 10 years.
LOW REIMBURSEMENT RATES FROM MEDICARE AND MEDICAID HAVE A HAND IN PHARMACY CLOSURES: From 2009 to 2015, one in eight pharmacies — 9,654 — shut their doors, according to a new JAMA Internal Medicine report. Independent pharmacies and those in rural and urban areas serving mostly Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries were more likely to close.
ANTI-ABORTION GROUP PUSHES VERMA TO FINALIZE MEASURE TO BOLSTER HYDE: Anti-abortion advocates led by Susan B. Anthony List urged Verma to finalize a 2018 rule that would have Obamacare insurers send separate claims for abortion coverage to beneficiaries.
SBA List views the move as a reinforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal dollars from paying for abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s pregnancy threatens her life). The group also sees it as a way to follow through on the executive order President Barack Obama had signed on the matter, particularly given that some states obligate insurers cover abortions even though federal funds help subsidize the plans.
Abortion rights groups say the policy would be too burdensome for insurers, who might instead opt not to cover abortions at all, and are focused on eliminating Hyde.
Most 2020 Democratic candidates staunchly oppose the Hyde Amendment: Senator Bernie Sanders announced at Planned Parenthood’s June forum that abortion rights would be covered under his “Medicare for all” plan: “What we decided, was if we’re going to talk about healthcare for all, if we’re going to talk about the right of women to control their own lives, yes, abortion rights are part of what Medicare for All is.”
Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren have all pledged to repeal Hyde. Joe Biden, on the other hand, has flip-flopped. In June, his campaign confirmed the former veep supports the Hyde Amendment. Just two days later, Biden tweeted that he no longer did.
BUTTIGIEG PLANS TO REPEAL CORPORATE TAX CUT TO FUND HEALTHCARE: Buttigieg unveiled his plan to finance “Medicare for all who want it,” which would allow people to keep their private insurance plan or opt in for a public plan. Buttigieg said he would repeal the Trump administration’s corporate tax cut, raising the tax rate from 21% to 35% — the highest among developed countries. That, plus the savings from his plan to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with big pharma would give the government enough to cover the cost of his plan, his campaign says. They estimate the plan would cost $1.5 trillion.
Meanwhile, even as he criticizes Warren for it, Buttigieg says he still favors ‘Medicare for all’: Buttigieg told late-night host Jimmy Fallon that “Medicare for all” is still his preference, even though it’s not the same public buy-in plan he has proposed. Buttigieg said universal healthcare is the ultimate goal, but added: “I just think we got to have some humility about this. In other words to get from here to there, it makes more sense to make it optional.”
FDA APPROVES BREAKTHROUGH CYSTIC FIBROSIS TREATMENT: The Food and Drug Administration approved Trikafta, a cystic fibrosis treatment made up of three drugs approved for patients 12 years old and up, the first of its kind. The prescription targets the most common genetic mutation responsible for persistent lung infections and impaired breathing.
The Rundown
Charleston Post Courier Charleston hospitality workers can’t pay for healthcare, so a clinic is offering it for free
Politico Doctors lack treatments for nicotine-addicted youth
Stat In shocking reversal, Biogen to submit experimental Alzheimer’s drug for approval
Philadelphia Inquirer Many Philly-area doctors earn cash on the side consulting for Big Pharma. Does it mean anything for patients?
Reuters Drugstore drones: UPS will fly CVS prescriptions to U.S. customers
Calendar
TUESDAY | Oct. 22
9:30 a.m. 1100 Longworth. House Ways and Means Committee markup of healthcare legislation. Tune in.
WEDNESDAY | Oct. 23
10 a.m. 2123 Rayburn. House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on “Sabotage: The Trump Administration’s Attack on Healthcare.” Details.
1 p.m. 1100 Longworth. Ways and Means Committee markup of tax and health legislation. Tune in.
FRIDAY | Oct. 25
Noon. Reserve Officers Association Building. 1 Constitution Ave NE. Alliance for Health Policy congressional briefing on “Modernizing Medicare Part D.” Details
